American Express Launches Nationwide Campaign to Help U.S. Small
Merchants Fight Fraud

Includes $100 Reimbursement for Upgrading to EMV Terminals And
National Educational Campaign

February 24, 2015 07:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After being announced last October by President Obama, American Express
(NYSE:AXP) today officially launched its Small Merchant EMV Assistance
Program. The nationwide campaign will help U.S. small merchants fight
fraud through a $10 million reimbursement program designed to accelerate
adoption of EMV payment terminals. It will also arm small merchants with
knowledge about EMV’s security benefits.

As part of American Express’ program, eligible merchants that have
upgraded to an EMV terminal can request a one-time $100 reimbursement
from American Express by visiting www.americanexpress.com/fightfraud.*
The Company will deliver educational resources about EMV to small
merchants across the U.S. through email, a telephone hotline, and a
website. A team of ambassadors – the American Express Fraud Squad – will
also visit New York City, Atlanta, Miami and Houston, meeting
face-to-face with small merchants to spread the word about EMV and its
benefits.

“Fraud is a growing problem and the move to EMV is an important step
towards stemming payment card fraud in the U.S.,” said Anré Williams,
President, Global Merchant Services, American Express. “Unfortunately,
many small merchants do not know about EMV or what they need to do to
take advantage of it. We created the Small Merchant EMV Assistance
Program to help them. By providing financial and educational assistance,
we hope small merchants more quickly adopt EMV so they can ensure their
customers feel safe when shopping at their stores.”

Payment card fraud is a top concern among small merchants. According to
the American Express EMV Preparedness Survey, conducted in October 2014,
more than two-thirds (67%) of small merchants surveyed indicated that
protection against and prevention of payment-card fraud was very
important to running their businesses. Furthermore, 52% reported that
they feel they are at higher risk for payment card fraud than larger
businesses, with nearly half of those small merchants citing a lack of
money to invest in fraud prevention or a lack of access to experts who
can assist them as the biggest reasons why.

In addition, more than a third of the surveyed small merchants said they
either have not decided whether they will upgrade their payment
terminals or they do not plan to upgrade their payment terminals. Of
those small merchants, 57% cited the cost of terminals as the main
reason.

“The Achilles heel for EMV merchant adoption will be small and micro
merchants that are not only unprepared for EMV, but even unaware of the
fraud-liability shift in the U.S. this year,” said Nick Holland, Head of
Payments, Javelin Strategy & Research. “The majority of small merchants
lack the financial resources and expertise to make the transition to
EMV.”

EMV technology helps reduce the risk of fraud stemming from counterfeit
and stolen payment cards by storing information on a chip embedded in
the cards. Payment terminals must be equipped with the necessary
technology to be able to read the chips in order for the technology to
work. Beginning this October, U.S. merchants that do not have
EMV-enabled payment terminals and experience certain point-of-sale fraud
may be held liable for the costs stemming from such incidents.

*To qualify for a reimbursement, provided in the form of a $100 American
Express Gift Card, a U.S. small merchant must have less than $3 million
in annual American Express charge volume and submit a request for a
reimbursement between February 1, 2015 and April 30, 2015. Other terms
and conditions apply. Visit www.americanexpress.com/fightfraud
for details.

About the Survey

Ebiquity conducted the online survey among 500 owners/managers of U.S.
small businesses that accept credit cards, between October 7–14, 2014.
Businesses reporting on overall annual charge volume of less than $3
million qualified for the study. The overall results have a margin of
error of +/-4.4 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence.